Favorable exchange rate $ to €

Andreas certainly might be right. But predicting the future direction of a currency is a gamble. The euro might go to $1.40, but it also might go to $1.20. If you knew which, you could become a rich man.

I'm glad Andreas posted this information. Anyone who watches the money market knows what this fluctuation means. It means now is a good time to buy your Euros. I'm also glad to see this thread because sometime over a year ago I posted a similar one and was upbraided for encouraging speculation in currencey. They do walk among us.

Maybe it's a good time to buy, and maybe it isn't. You won't know for sure until it's time for your trip and you can see what the exchange rate is then. Unless you have a crystal ball, you are engaging in currency speculation, which you are free to do. But keep in mind that just because the exchange rate was around $1.40 this year does not mean it will be $1.40 in 2012.

A point ten jump is something like seven percent. Figure you're making two on a crummy bank account any you pay one to convert. The max potential savings is thus four percent. Most people that post here seem to pay in plastic and prebook/prepay like the dickens. Also, the bulk seem to go on about two-week trips. Figure an extravagant cash expenditure of a hundred euro a day times fourteen days times four percent - - maybe fifty five bucks in potential savings for all the trouble? Or spin your wheels to loose that much?

"I'm also glad to see this thread because sometime over a year ago I posted a similar one and was upbraided for encouraging speculation in currencey." Well that's just what it is, currency speculation. There are people that do that and some make a lot of money doing it and profiting on the minute changes of currency rates. For the rest of us planning a 2 week vacation, it provides no real value and could cost people their hard earned vacation money. The other reason is that to buy euros in the US, almost everyplace will charge 5-10% more in the exchange rate. Using an ATM from a bank with a good exchange policy will get you the interbank rate and little to no fee. The difference in the rate between $1.30 and $1.40 is about 7-8%. So you'd spend 5-10% to save 7-8%. The math just doesn't work.

The last time the Euro was this low I bought 1,000 for my next trip. I was not sorry. I ended up paying, thru my bank, about $1.35 per each Euro. The value of the Euro rose after that, so it was a successful move on my part. Of course, the Euro could go lower. No guarantees.

Picking the right time to exchange currency is like trying to peg the bottom of the stock market, hard to do. We are heading to France in January and we exchanged $497 into €355 at a local credit union, the best thing to do? I don't know but it gives us hard currency for our arrival, and once there we will use our ATM cards to withdraw cash and credit card for our hotel stays.

purchasing euros now means you are convinced that they have figured out their current debt and money crisis. i'm not sure what has given you that impression.

A Wells Fargo agent walked me through the details of converting $1000+ to euros. Based on my understanding, the net transaction cost is approximately 5%. Is there a significantly cheaper method to convert dollars to euros while in the US?

Bruce, no one has posted a better rate than what Wells Fargo offers for US purchases of foreign currency.

So, the euro must increase in value 5% over the dollar just to break even and not counting loss of modest interest earnings and opportunity cost. Hmmm.

That's correct Bruce. That's the main reason why it just doesn't make sense to speculate, not to mention that few if any of us are experts on currency policies and exchange futures. Actually, the chance of losing money buying euros ahead of time is higher than making money. Because the purchase rate is at least 5% more than the interbank rate, the rates must improve by at least 5% or you lose money (assuming the 1-3% fees you pay using the ATM equal the 1-3% interest you lose having money under the mattress). If you wait to use the ATM on your trip, the rate would have to rise by that 5% before you lose out. And if the rate drops after buying your euros, you lose. And to put this in persective: if you plan to spend $2000 on your trip, that 5% is worth $100. If you bought euros last January for a summer trip, you would have indeed saved 5-10% and made $100-200. But if you waited until March (when rates were still rising sharply), you would have lost some money as rates did not rise more than 5% through the summer. And if you waited until May for a late summer/fall trip(when rates were at their peak), you would have lost all of your $100-200 and more as rates began dropping.

As others have said, currency speculation is a game best played by professionals (using other peoples' money), but this is a particularly bad time to speculate. It is highly, highly unlikely, but not outside the realm of possible, that the Euro could go nearly bust in the next year and become seriously devalued. Moral of the story is there has never been a better time to buy as you go....

It's less than ironic that someone from the country with the most to lose in the economic crisis is urging people to buy Euros. Hmmmmm?

We go to Europe every summer for a month and do not purchase any local currency before leaving the US. We us DEBIT cards tied to CHECKING ACCOUNTS in ATMs wherever we land and have never had a problem finding ATMs at our landing airport (or final airport). Our ATMs are tied to accounts that only make up transactions 1% (CUs) and giving the cost of flying from the west coast and staying and traveling in Europe for a month, the cost of waiting until we arrive is not much compared to purchasing E's here before we go and hoping the rate goes changes in our favor. Hope our method keeps working. One never knows for sure just what is going to come out of all of the financial upheaval in Europe today.

Same here. ^ If I were to buy Euros from my bank, the 10% fee would not make it such a deal.

Currency speculation should probably be left to the professionals not the "tourists" :)

One thing is for sure - If the exchange rate is $1.30, you'll be paying more because that is the intrabank rate. The rate YOU pay to your commerecial bank will be higher - higher than you are likely to pay through an ATM transaction.

the euro is now several percentage points lower than it was when the OP started this thread. SURELY it can't go any lower, right? right? we'll see...